Bags Searched Redux-New York is now your mother.

"Since the suicide bombings in London on July 7 through Monday afternoon, New York police had received 1,476 reports of suspicious packages or people, compared to 804 over the same period last year."[link]

But that, to be sure, is not the fun part. The real fun is that now if if leave something in a public space, the cops are getting called. This is one account of a 'suspicious package' that shut down subway service at Borough Hall in Bklyn along the 2,3,5,N.R.W. lines.

“Someone left their bag there,” said Det. John Sweeney, a police spokesman. “[NYPD Bomb Squad] opened up the package and realized it was somebody’s personal property and that was it.”[link]

Didn't your mother teach you to clean up after yourself? But this is even better. I have lost stuff in the city a couple of times. Once or twice in cabs, and a few times in other places. You just write it off- if you go back the bag or whatever is usually gone. It's fucking Manahattan. People would steal the sidewlks if they were a bit lighter (my current theory is that this is, in fact, an extensive mining plan designed to produce coffee grounds for those little cart vendors.)

But now, if you leave something, the police are called, and then you can pick it up later, as long as it's not a b-o-m-b.